Spotted Eagle Owl and chick ...

Yesterday I took some video footage of a Spotted Eagle Owl and chick in Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden, Cape Town.

Here is the video that I compiled.

The chick is about two weeks old.






And here is a short video that I took on 12 and 19 November 2010 when the chick had been out of the nest for about 3 weeks.


He does seem rather alone though compared to previous years where the parents raised two chicks each season. This year the second egg unfortunately failed to hatch.

He is doing very well and growing rapidly. I really enjoy the fact that when we walk in Kirstenbosch each evening there always seems to be someone else "just checking up" on the owl chick. He is very tame and is quite a hit among regular visitors to the garden.

A ramble around the back table of Table Mountain ...

On 14 October I took my good friend Steve for a ramble around the back table of Table Mountain.
Starting in Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden we climbed up Skeleton Gorge, visited the Waterworks Museum just below the Hely-Hutchinson Dam and hiked along the old railway track to the top of Kasteelspoort where we had a magnificent view over the Southern Atlantic.

After a lunch break we retraced our steps along the old railway track and crossed the dam wall of Woodhead Reservoir. We walked along the jeep track past Victoria and Alexandra Reservoirs after which we cut back, northwards along the Eastern edge of the mountain to the top of Nursery Ravine. After a visit to Castle Rock, the top of the buttress between Nursery and Skeleton Gorges we returned and descended by Nursery Ravine back down to Kirstenbosch Garden.



The video that I took of the hike is recorded below in four parts
(Parts 2 - 4 have yet to be uploaded to YouTube but I'll do that over the next couple of days and update this post as I go.)

PART 1




Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



After our hike we delivered Steve to the Airport later that evening and in due course he arrived home in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Exhibition at Kirstenbosch ...

We (the Western Cape Woodturners Association) recently had a three day exhibition of woodturnings at the Old Mutual Conference Centre at Kirstenbosch.

Gigi blogged a post about it on her blog here.

Kirstenbosch have granted us the entire conference venue for an exhibition over the 2008 Easter weekend

Wet in Cape Town ...

It's freezing and very wet in Cape Town.

This post interrupts the posts of our recent trip to the USA but here are a few pics of the swollen Nursery and Skeleton streams flowing through Kirstenbosch this evening.

It's been pouring all day so Gigi and I could not resist the temptation to take a short walk in and above the garden after work. Very dramatic. Water was just pouring off the mountain. Window ravine particularly was just a welter of spray.

Surprisingly enough there was a short break in the rain that allowed me to get home on the motorcycle completely dry and for us to take a walk without getting wet. Fate clearly smiles on those who reduce their carbon emissions by using a motorcycle in winter in Cape Town! But since we have been home it has started to rain intermittently and the temperature has dropped dramatically.


Here is Skeleton Stream flowing under the bridge just below the Kirstenbosch Tea Room.












Here is the confluence of Skeleton Stream flowing from the right and Nursery Stream from under the trees, centre left











Here is the footbridge over Nursery Stream just above the high level road above the cultivated section of Kirstenbosch garden

The water is pouring right over the top of the footbridge in places








A closer view of the stream flowing right over the footbridge












And by flash - freezing the flow of the water













And here is Nursery Stream flowing over the high level road and cascading down into the rocky bed again











Lastly as we turned to walk back down, is a view from the top of the garden out over the southern suburbs of Cape Town

The ridge on the right is Bishopscourt

The tree is the top of an indigenous silver tree

Arthropod Action ...

Today Gigi and I photographed a few interesting arthropods as we set out for our regular Friday afternoon walk in Kirstenbosch.



There were a whole bunch of impressive stick insects hanging around the Pearson House verandah

















I spy a stick insect eye!


















The larva of a common local moth which I'll identify later

This time of the year they crawl up the walls of Pearson House in significant numbers where they pupate









And pupa of the same moth hanging under the windowsill

















Who is Gigi photographing up there, sitting on the ceiling?


















Mr cool hunting spider (about 3 inches long, toe to toe)












And here is a spider wasp who paralyses hunting spiders with her sting and carries them off to a hole

There she buries them there alive but paralysed and lays her eggs in them

When her eggs hatch her larvae have an instant meal available!

I suspect Mr hunting spider around the corner was a tad big for her to tackle so she is hunting in the wall vents for a slightly smaller victim



The last rays of the summer sun on Fernwood buttress at about 8pm that evening

















A family of Cape Francolin (or Cape Spurfowl as they are now known) soaking up the last warmth from the tar road











They were so casual that the hen allowed the youngsters to sit down and soak up the warmth right in front of us

They only moved off slowly once we shuffled right up close















And here growing in the garden is my favourite flower

The Flame Lilly (Gloriosa superba), the national flower of the, now, cyberstate Rhodesia where I spent my youth

I see that it is still the national flower of the basket state Zimbabwe.

What a come down - ag shame!